Serhiy Zhadan

Serhiy Zhadan is one of the key voices in contemporary Ukrainian literature: his poetry and novels have enjoyed popularity both at home and abroad. He has twice won BBC Ukraine’s Book of the Year (2006 and 2010) and has twice been nominated as Russian GQ’s ‘Man of the Year’, in their writers category. Writing is just one of his many interests, which also include singing in a band, translating poetry and organising literary festivals. His works have been translated into German, English, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Belorussian, Russian, Hungarian, Armenian and Swedish.

Zhadan’s work explores the changes he has witnessed as a representative of the immediate post-Soviet generation in Ukraine. His poetic style and masterful wordplay have led critics to dub his trademark approach “verbal jazz”, a description that reflects his unique authorial voice. Zhadan stands as a witness to a time of great social change through the eyes of Ukraine’s dispossessed youth. Never one to bow to convention, since giving up university teaching in 2004 Zhadan was an activist in 2006’s Orange Revolution. In 2008 the Russian translation of his novel Anarchy in the UKRwas shortlisted by the National Bestseller Prize in Russia.